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*The Bridgnorth, Wolverhampton & Staffordshire Railway (June 1866). This would have left the S&BR near Oxley Viaduct, proceeding via Wombourne and Halfpenny Green to cross the Severn near Oldbury before joining the Severn Valley Railway just south of Bridgnorth. Curiously, the GWR had opposed its construction, seeing it as an attempt by the LNWR to reach Wales. Although this was overruled, the powers lapsed when funds could not be raised.
*The GWR Additional Powers Act (July 1905). The GWR’s own scheme was broadly similar to the above, but crossing the Severn close to Quatford before joining the Severn Valley Railway nearer Eardington with a triangle junction. However, even before the bill was passed, the GWR had introduced a steam bus service between Wolverhampton Low Level Station and Bridgnorth Station, soon replaced by motor buses. Although the Kingswinford and Wombourne section (“the Wombourne Branch”) was completed in 1925, the Bridgnorth section had been postponed by 1913. Another GWR Additional Powers Act in 1925 resurrected the possibility of its resumption, but the lack of traffic and growth of road transport soon led to it being abandoned.<br><Gallery>File:Steam_Bus_1904.jpg | A steam bus at Bridgnorth in November 1904. (Sellick Collection)</gallery>The entry for the Severn Valley Railway on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Valley_Railway#Eastwards Wikipedia] makes reference to a proposal prior to World War II to link the Severn Valley Line with the Wombourne Branch, with a section being pegged out and some earthworks carried out immediately south of Crossing Cottage near Eardington. This may refer to the southern end of the GWR scheme, although no reference to these workings can be found in the books listed in the Bibliography section.
The majority of schemes were for ‘full blown’ railways. However The Light Railways Act of 1896 simplified the construction of smaller railways; companies could plan a line and, having obtained a Light Railway Order, build and operate it, all without the need for specific legislation in Parliament. The Light Railway Orders would specify limits for axle weights and running speeds to take account of the normally lightly laid lines used on such railways, they could also exempt light railways from some of the requirements of a normal railway in respect of level crossings, signalling and so on (the 1896 Act, with subsequent revisions, provided the Light Railway Orders under which heritage railways such as the SVR would later operate).
